Gabueva Eteri Ilyinichna, 1934 year of birth, an inhabitant of Tskhinval.
In August, 2008, because of constant bombardment of Tskhinval from Georgia, we had to send our children to Vladikavkaz. I, myself, remained in the town with my daughter and my husband. On the night of August, 8 strong explosions resounded through the town. It was clear that the war had begun. We did not know when the end would come. The blast wave provoked certain rumble in my ears; the debris broke the glasses of the windows. We suffered the horror much worse than during the first war (1992). That night the Georgian planes were bombing the town, they hit our houses whistling. I, an elderly woman, thought that I had suffered all the hard time in my life; however it was only the beginning.
Our cellar was not adapted for the bombproof shelter and in case of explosion we could not get out of it. Being afraid to go down there, we have decided to remain on the ground floor, with hope that we could survive. Despite the previous constant bombardments, the war has begun unexpectedly. We had not time even to be reserved by water and bread though at that moment it was unimportant. For 20 years I have got used to bombardments, but this war was so terrible that I could not think of anything else. I had only to ask God for mercy and for rescuing our family and friends. When the next explosion resounded and our house begun trembling, I thought that it was the end … our house would crash down, but the mine hit the next house. With cries for help my neighbour woman has jumped out of her house. Under bombardment she somehow managed to leap over the fence and joined us. We have stayed in this dusty room on the floor and waited, waited not understanding what we are waiting for. May be, we were waiting for the war end, may be – our own death which was approaching closer and closer. It seemed to me that time had stopped; there was no possibility even to ask anyone for help. Sitting in the dark room, we did not even dare to light a candle; we simply would have doomed ourselves to death. Though I am an old woman and I have suffered much in my life, but this war has finished me off. It does not matter how old is one; the most valuable thing is his life which nobody has a right to take. Next day my relatives could get through to us, they calmed us that the help was already on the way. But, unfortunately, nobody has come to rescue us that day. There was one strange fact: as soon as someone called us, .the missiles started to hit our shelter. As it turned out later on, the Georgians through a signal of the mobile phones identified the location of the calling people.… I can`t express the pain which has been pursuing me within these years. People were dying around, for example, someone on his way home after the heavy working day, when the town bombardment suddenly began, may be killed by the Georgian bullet. The working day was under constant pressure, too...Those terrible days all of us waited for help, expecting it each minute. There was the last slice of bread which we have divided into 4 parts. Water-supplies were coming on an end. And it was not any sense to go anywhere. Each explosion made me shudder. Those days are the heaviest in my life. I never thought that I would face something similar. It seemed that the explosions would crush down all around. Within five days I was as if in a bad dream where everybody was killed, and everything was intended to be exterminated. Thank God for rescuing us. After all, we were unarmed, we could not be protected. In expectation of the end suddenly someone knocked at our door. We were in horror thinking that they were the Georgians. But when I heard the voice of my nephew, I rushed to the door and opened it. With tears in my face I embraced him and thanked God that the war had come to an end we were rescued. One could not recognize our street, it was in ruins, there were corpses of the Georgian military men everywhere, all around has been burnt and destroyed. There was an awful smell of corpses and ashes in the air. I did not know what would expect us in future, but the most terrible was had been already in the past.
